Saint Thomas.
Thomas the Apostle is mentioned in all the Gospels. He was
prepared to die with Jesus, but later, after the Resurrection,
refused to believe in the risen Christ until he had touched his
wounds ( hence the expression ‘Doubting Thomas’).
Little is known about the rest of his life. One tradition suggests that he was a missionary in Parthia. Another, far stronger one, records that he travelled to India, was killed with a spear and was buried near Madras, at Mylapore. An ancient cross still marks his supposed burial place, and the Syrian Christians on India’s Malabar coast claim him as their founder, describing themselves as the "St. Thomas Christians" or the "Mar Thoma Church".
His patronage of architects is based on a colourful tale in the apocryphal ‘Acts of Thomas’: an Indian king gave Thomas a large sum of money to build a palace, for which he had produced plans. Instead Thomas spent the it on the poor, "thus building a palace in heaven".
Pictures: above — wooden carving of Thomas between two architects
Below:— stone relief: ‘Watched by his fellow apostles, Thomas satisfies himself that the figure before him is the risen Christ’.
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Collect Almighty and eternal God, who, for the firmer foundation of our faith, allowed your holy apostle Thomas to doubt the resurrection of your Son till word and sight convinced him: grant to us, who have not seen, that we also may beleive and so confess Christ as our Lord and our God; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. |
Feast Day - 3rd July
Patronages - Architects; the blind (because of his early spiritual blindness)
Emblems - T-square; spear.
